Elle's New England Kitchen

Think Blueberry Pancakes. In a nice little handheld size. And no slaving over a hot griddle making pancake after pancake. These are almost instant gratification!

Some of you may remember the Daring Bakers Cake, Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, from Shuna Fish Lydon. One of the best cakes ever, and the one I’m requesting for my birthday in September. It’s amazing how browning the butter makes the whole thing better. And it’s a simple step, too! Just make sure you run the browned butter through a strainer (a metal mesh one, so it doesn’t melt!) and let it cool slightly before you add it to your recipe.

So, I was thinking about muffins, as I often do. Yes, really! I love them like family. They make a nice breakfast or a delicious snack. It’s cake that’s contained in it’s own little hand held package. Want fruit? Go for it! Nuts? Chocolate? Whatever you feel like!

While I was thinking about muffins, I inadvertently drifted over to breakfast--->pancakes--->blueberry pancakes--->maple syrup--->muffins! The light went on over my head and hit me like a dozen muffins. Or in this case, ten.

Blueberry muffins. Nearly everyone loves them. But putting a spin on them is the fun part! To mimic blueberry pancakes, I could add maple syrup. And browned butter to get the flavor you get from frying your pancakes up in melted butter.

Oh, yes. Now we’re talking! These are right up there in my top 5 favorite muffins now. I’ll definitely make them more, and in fact, they’re now my official blueberry muffin recipe!

I used frozen Wild Maine Blueberries in these. You know, the little tiny ones? But you can use any kind you like. And even though I think purple muffins are extremely cool, I did rinse them before using. I wanted to see if the browned butter gave the batter some color, and it did. After baking, they were a nice caramel color.

Maple Syrup. Please, if you love me, use real maple syrup in these. Not the doctored up corn syrup with artificial maple flavoring and coloring. In this case, I used a maple agave blend from Trader Joe’s. It’s real maple syrup blended with agave. It’s one of my new best friends! If you can’t get your hands on that, maple syrup is perfect.

I adapted this recipe from one found in 100 Muffins and Scones, by Felicity Barnum-Bobb. This book is packed with mouthwatering recipes to feed my muffin addiction!

Browned Butter Blueberry Maple Muffins
adapted from 100 Magnificent Muffins & Scones, by Felicity Barnum-Bobb

To print this recipe, click here.

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup blueberries (if frozen, rinsed and set aside to dry a bit)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup maple syrup, for brushing over tops

Heat oven to 375, and lightly grease your muffin pan.
Melt the butter in a small pan, letting it go until it starts to brown and smell nutty. Don't let it burn, but stop
when it gets deep brown. There will be dark sediment in the pan, so pour the butter through a wire mesh strainer
and set it aside to cool a bit. Don't worry if a bit of the sediment makes it through the strainer.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and sugar.
In a smaller bowl, toss the berries with 1/4 cup of the flour mixture.
In a large measuring cup or smaller bowl, whisk the melted butter, maple syrup eggs and salt.
Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff, mix just until blended--then fold in berries.
Fill the muffin cups evenly (I got 10 muffins) and bake for 18-20 minutes.
Do the toothpick test--it should come out clean.
Let the muffins cool a few minutes in the pan, then run a knife around the edges, and turn them out on to a
cooling rack.
Place the cooling rack over a parchment lined pan, and brush the tops with the maple syrup.

A question to you, my readers--what are your favorite kinds of muffins?

This dinner was put together one night when looking for a way to use up a package of steamed lentils from Trader Joe’s, a few Portobello mushroom caps, and some quinoa. Yes, I said steamed lentils! It’s a pack of 2 1/2 cups of lentils, vacuum sealed and ready to go. Now, there’s no reason at all why you couldn’t make your own lentils, but I think it would be better if you made them ahead and let them sit in the fridge for a day. Just like you do for fried rice. It lets them separate and firm up, and hold up better to sautéing—so they don’t turn to mush.

The quinoa part of this is done polenta-style, with some fresh grated parmesan, and is from Whole Grains for Busy People, by Lorna Sass. Couldn’t be easier! I’ve made this quite a few times already, even adding an extra bit of half and half at the end for a little more creaminess. Delicious!

Lorna’s book is loaded with great recipes—I have a ton marked to try. And it’s not a vegetarian book, by any means. There’s plenty of meaty recipes in there, but whole grains are included. And they’re all quick, weeknight meals, with grains that cook quickly. But don’t feel the need to limit them to just weeknights!

So get your quinoa polenta going in one pot, and start the lentils in another pan. If you like, you can do the mushrooms in a third pan, but I just transfer the lentils to a bowl when they’re done, then do the portobellos in the same pan. They’re very quick to cook up, so your other stuff isn’t going to get cold.

Don’t look at the three elements and think it’s too complicated, please. Each one is extremely quick and easy, I promise!

Quinoa-Style Polenta
From Whole Grains for Busy People, and slightly changed

1 cup quinoa
2 cups chicken broth (or use vegetable broth if you prefer)
1/2 cup grated fresh parmesan
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp of your favorite fresh herbs, minced (or about 1 tsp dried)
salt and fresh cracked black pepper

In a saucepan, bring broth and quinoa to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook about 12-15 minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed.
Stir in the remaining ingredients and set aside.

Sautéed Lentils

2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 1/2 cups cooked lentils
1 cup chicken broth (or vegetable if you prefer)
2 tbsp of your favorite fresh herbs, minced (or about 2 tsp dried)
fresh cracked black pepper

In a skillet over medium low heat, heat some olive oil, then add the garlic and saute for a few minutes, being
careful not to burn it.
Increase the heat to medium high, and add the onions--cook for a few minutes.
Add the lentils and broth, and simmer for about 5 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
You want to cook off most of the liquid.
Add the herbs and pepper.
Set aside, or remove from pan--then wipe it clean and slowly heat a little olive oil to get ready for the mushrooms...

Sautéed Portobellos

2 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 large Portobello mushroom caps, stems removed and sliced, gills removed, and rinsed
your favorite herbs
fresh cracked black pepper and a little salt

Slice the mushrooms into pieces about 3/4 inch thick. Use the sliced stems, too, if you like!
Heat a bit of oil in a pan over medium low heat, then add the garlic.
Saute, being careful not to burn it.
Add the mushrooms and cook for about 2 minutes on each side.
Add herbs, salt and pepper.

Layer the quinoa, lentils, then mushrooms in your bowl, and top with extra grated parmesan.

Serves 3 people

My meat-eating husband absolutely loves this one! And see how it serves three people? That means the two of us for dinner, and he gets the leftovers for lunch the next day. That’s how much he loves this dish.

There’s been a lot of buzz around the food blogging world for the last few days. If you want to know why, you can click the link and read all about it.

Food Blog Code of Ethics

While the basic idea of this code is common sense honesty, and I’m sure—written with good intentions--there are a few things about it that rub me the wrong way. I’ll touch on those first, then give you some links to other blogs who have posted about it, as well. I urge you to also read through the comments—they’re well thought out and may bring up some points you haven’t thought of.

1) This Code of Ethics was written by two trained journalists that also blog about food. So naturally, they lean towards journalistic ethics. And that’s fine! If you’re a journalist. Which I am not. I write this blog for fun. I look at it as friends having a chat about food.

2) The authors of the code say they had heated discussions with other food bloggers before putting it in writing. What food bloggers? I wasn’t one of them. I don’t think I know any one else that was asked to weigh in on it. I think that before one word of the code was released, it should have been put out there for all food bloggers to offer up opinions on. Granted, there would have been a lot of opinions to wade through, but I think if you’re going to set up “guidelines” that you’d like to apply to all food bloggers, then you ought to give them the option to know about it and be a part of it before you release it to the world. That’s common sense.

3) Honesty. It’s a very good thing! I’m an honest person with integrity. I don’t think that if I put a little badge saying “I Follow The Code” in my sidebar, you’ll all rest easier at night. Will you? I give my readers way more credit than that! You guys can discern between bullshit and the truth. It seems silly to me to have to tell you that I’m an honest person. You’ll either think someone is or not. But more importantly, you’ll form that opinion on your own. I actually read a comment by someone who was all aboard for the code, and said it was a way to *set themselves apart as having standards* they write by.

Well, excuse me (!), but I have standards already, and don’t need a code to proclaim it! Being ethical, honest, and civil are qualities you either have, or you don’t. And no code is going to help you if you don’t already possess those attributes.

4) While we’re on the subject of honesty…I really don’t expect that the thieves out there that steal blog content and photos will suddenly say “Oh, there’s a CODE? Well, that changes everything! I’ll stop stealing your content right away and never do it again!” Please. They’re going to do it anyway, because they’re unethical, and no badge or document will stop them. They have to want to do it.

5) The authors of the code think that restaurant reviews by food bloggers should be fair. I can’t argue with that at all. But they suggest visiting an establishment at least twice before reviewing. Which would be fine if I were a journalist with an expense account. But I’m a stay at home mom, and our budget for such things come out of my husband’s paycheck. I suggest that restaurants learn consistency and put out quality food every time a plate leaves the kitchen, or own up to it—and not get pissed at the food blogger that happened to get a bad plate of food.

6) I fund this blog. Which means I’m “Supreme Ruler and Dictator” when it comes to what I publish on it. If I want to be crude (which I’m not, for the most part) I will. If I don’t want to be civil, I won’t. Please refer to my title in line one, section six if you’ve got an issue with that.

7) From the code:

“As the blogging world expands exponentially, more and more people in the culinary world believe that food bloggers—as a group—are unfair, highly critical, untrained and power hungry individuals empowered by anonymity.”

I’m betting that the ones who think food bloggers are unfair and critical are the very ones being criticized by food bloggers. They call us hacks. I have a simple solution for them. Put out better food, better books, and better products. And put on your grown up panties and realize that not everyone will kiss your ass and tell you you’re awesome! If you’re putting yourself out there publicly, be ready for criticism. It’s part of being in the public eye.

8) The badge. For the time being, they’ve decided to hold off on releasing it, and thank GOD for that. They say: “We’re conflicted about the negative message the badge might convey.”

Negative message is right! Can you imagine new readers coming to a great, honest blog—not seeing the badge, and thinking “Oh, this must be written by an unethical, dishonest hack. I must go elsewhere.”

This badge should never, ever become the defining “badge of honor.” Because there are millions of honest, ethical and civil food bloggers out there, and they don’t need a badge to proclaim it. I’ll say it again. I think 99% of food blog readers are extremely smart people and can tell when someone is trying to bullshit them—and the 1% are trolls looking to piss people off. But for someone who just starts reading food blogs—well, I hope they never have to look for a badge of honesty to decide whether to read a blog or not.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I guess that was a little more than a few. But I feel very strongly about this. Now, the authors state plainly that these are guidelines, not rules. But really, if someone decides not to follow and jump on the bandwagon, does that make them unethical? Dishonest? Uncivil?

Hell, no! But it’s a slippery slope they’re on—trying to govern a very large group of people and hold them to standards that journalists follow. And with all due respect to these ladies, rather pretentious. I don’t know the numbers, but I’m betting most food bloggers aren’t trained journalists like the authors of the code. Will people embrace it, follow it, live by it? Or will the hype die down in a few months as we’ve all moved on to something else? I don’t know yet.

Here are a few links to check out. I hope you’ll go read them, and don’t forget the comments! There are many opinions, and things for you to think about. Whether you’re a food blog writer or a blog reader—you should know about this code, and decide if it’s important to you or not. As a reader, especially. Will you look for the badge of honesty? Or will you let the blogs speak for themselves, and use your intelligence to see when someone is lying to you?

Eating L.A.

Bitchin’ Avocado

SaltShaker

Sky full of Bacon

Guardian.co.uk

I’ll leave you with this: I’m an honest person. I’m ethical, and civil. And I care about my readers—I won’t lie to you. But I won’t subscribe to someone else’s idea of what a food blogger should be like. I’ll be me, without a shiny badge, and hope that you’ll still come back to read about what I have to say. And thanks to those that do!

Yes, you read that right—raw!  This soup is completely uncooked, just made in a blender.  It’s not even heated up.  And don’t think I’m off my rocker, hehe.  Think cold soups and gazpacho! 

My husband and I have decided to incorporate healthier eating into our diets, in a couple of ways.  One, by adding one or two vegetarian meals per week, and two, by adding a couple of raw food recipes to our repertoire every week or so.  What are some benefits of eating raw foods?  Well, the obvious, of course—you’re  not cooking the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals out of the food.  Then there’s the fiber—that's an important benefit.  But so is feeling good about what you eat.

I’ll be the first person in line when someone’s grilling a steak, chicken, or a burger—I love meat.  But maybe I don’t want to eat it every single day.  Who says I have to?  No one, of course.  Maybe some of you are feeling the same way.  Especially in the summertime, when eating lighter and not heating up the kitchen sound like two really good things.  And eating lots of raw, locally grown and organic foods appeals to us right now.

With these thoughts in mind, we went to Barnes and Noble last weekend, grabbed a bunch of raw (un)cookbooks off the shelf, grabbed a table in the cafe, and immersed ourselves in “uncooking.”   Some of the books were exactly what we expected.  Recipes were complicated, with three, four, or five separate components.  You “needed” a special blender, and a “must have” was a dehydrator.  Sure, the food looked amazing, but these recipes were no way to ease into a raw food lifestyle.  Not for us, anyway.

Two books stood out among all of the ones we looked at, though.  First, Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes, by Ani Phyo, and Everyday Raw, by Matthew Kenney.

See them both here, on Amazon:

 

Both of these books make adding raw foods to your diet easy and definitely not daunting.  The recipes are droolworthy and beautiful.  The ingredients aren’t hard to track down.  There  may be a few new ingredients you haven’t seen or heard of yet, but that’s what google is for, right?  And so far, I’ve had no trouble tracking down the few things I didn’t have in my pantry. 

In Everyday Raw, Matthew says you don’t even need a dehydrator, which I don’t have.  You can use your oven on it’s lowest setting, with the door propped open.  What’s the dehydrator for?  Well, it’s for raw breads, crackers, crusts—in other words, they’re dried, not heated and baked. 

I’m going to try my hand at making raw bread from Ani’s book this week, and will keep you posted.  It’s for the Sun Burgers on Black Sesame Sunflower Bread that she’s enjoying on the cover of her book.  They look and sound incredible!  My husband and I figured that since we’re just starting out and testing the waters, we’d compromise with crusts and breads for the most part.  In other words, if we want raw pizza, we’ll make the healthiest pizza crust we can find, bake it, and then add raw toppings.  Same thing for tart and pie crusts, breads, etc.  As we get better at this, maybe we’ll invest in that dehydrator and see what we can do.  A side note—Ani’s tart and pie crusts are not dehydrated—just held together with dates and pressed into the pan. 

So far, Ani’s book seems to be the best place to start.  She rarely uses a dehydrator—very few of her recipes call for one, and we already know we can use our oven.  She also has a website, where you can see some of her recipes.

When we left the bookstore, we headed over to our local natural foods store.  It was fate.  They were serving samples of this raw soup.  Who can resist a free sample?  It was delicious—cool, creamy, fresh tasting, and had a little crunch from some fresh corn sprinkled over the top.  And guess what?  They had copies of the recipe, and everything to make it, right there in one place.  Of course we picked up everything to make it at home!

This one’s very good for summer meals when you want a little bit of a starter.  Serve a small bowl or a pretty little cup of this to guests and I’m sure they’ll love it.  I don’t think I could sit and eat a whole bowl of this, though.  It’s amazingly creamy and rich for something that has no cream in it!  The creaminess comes from raw cashews blended right in, and an avocado.  There’s also coconut water in this.  Not coconut milk, but water.   That’s refreshing on it’s own!  And delicious, too.

Every single ingredient in this recipe, except for the raw cashews, can be found at my local grocery chain.  In fact, many of them were cheaper there than at the natural foods store.  It’s all trial and error.  Also—I think you could easily warm this soup up if you prefer! 

Raw Cream of Asparagus Soup

from A Market Natural Foods

Print this recipe here.

Makes 4 servings

1 bunch raw asparagus
1 ripe avocado
1 liter coconut water
1 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup fresh dill
juice of one lemon
1 tsp tamari
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 ear fresh corn, with corn removed

Add all ingredients except corn to blender.
(If it's too much to fit all at once, do it in two batches and mix together.)
Blend until smooth or desired texture.
Top with fresh corn and serve.

Another benefit of raw cooking?  For the most part, it’s pretty quick.  This one was, anyway.  Keep an eye out for more recipes like this one, raw and uncooked.  But don’t worry, there’s still meat in the freezer, and bread in the oven, hehe.  Baby steps.

  

 

Time for the monthly Royal Foodie Joust!  What’s the Joust, you ask?  It’s a monthly contest started by Jenn, The Leftover Queen.  Who also runs The Foodie BlogRoll.  And if you have a food blog and haven’t joined yet, what are you waiting for?  They have giveaways happening all the time, and all you need to do to enter is join the BlogRoll.  Plus, there are forums that are a great way to network, meet other bloggers, and find lots of great information.  So get on over there and check it all out!

Last month’s Joust was won by Peter and Christey at http://fotocuisine.com/, and they won with their entry for Almond Crusted Asparagus Rolls with Lemongrass Hollandaise.  How amazing does that look?   Well, everything they have posted does, right? 

 

The winner of each Joust gets to choose the three ingredients for the next Joust.  And this time, instead of choosing specific ingredients, Peter and Christey chose Red, White, and Green.  I loved this idea, because it leaves the Joust wide open to interpretation.  Feeling sweet, savory, traditional or daring?  Doesn’t matter—as long as you use some red, white and green.

This past Saturday, I was having a short chat with Michele, at Life, Lightly Salted.  She’s a real sweetheart and has an outstanding blog, so please go and say hello to her.  We were talking about ice cream, and she was saying she was going to try making some avocado ice cream.  I swear, I almost saw the light bulb go off over my head.   I love guacamole, and what if I could make avocado ice cream, but make it look like the dip I love so much? 

It all fell into place.  Since I’d always wanted to try avocado ice cream, I knew this would be fun—plus my ice cream maker was growing far too lazy.  I decided to use diced strawberries instead of tomatoes, shredded coconut in place of diced white onion, and mint would stand in for cilantro.

I used a basic recipe for the ice cream from Alton Brown.  You just can’t go wrong with his recipes.  I didn’t let the mixture chill for 4-6 hours, though.  More like 30-40 minutes, and I had no problems.  Damn my lack of patience!  And toward the end of the cycle, I tossed in a few small handfuls of coconut, and about 6 large diced strawberries.  I almost forgot the mint until my husband reminded me.  Whew!  I’d have hated to have forgotten that.  I just folded that in myself and them tossed it all in the freezer to set better.

I should have taken a photo before scooping some out, though, because when it was in the container, it looked just like guacamole!  My daughter came in and said, “gross, mom, that ice cream looks like guacamole!”  Good!  that’s what I was going for!  ;)

My “tortilla chips” would be played by shortbread cookies.  This recipe is from my grandmother, and we made it almost every year for Christmas.  The cookies are so pretty with red and green sugar on them.  We usually make them into individual cookies, but since I was trying to get the tortilla chip thing going, I split the dough into two portions, and patted it out into two circles on a parchment lined sheet.  Lightly score the dough into wedges, then bake.  After baking, you can separate the wedges.  (They take a little longer to bake this way—about 10 extra minutes.  they should feel set on the top.)  I know, most shortbread recipes don’t use any eggs, but I adore this recipe.  They seem lighter, and not so heavy.

Mom's Shortbread Cookies

To print this recipe, click here.

This is my mom's tried and true shortbread recipe. She got it from my grandmother. These are great any time of year, but especially nice for Christmas gifts. You can sprinkle them with green or red sugar before baking. The flavor of these cookies improves with age, so make them a few days before you plan to give them away.

2 cups    flour  
1 cup    butter, softened  
1/2 tsp    baking powder  
1/2 cup    sugar  
1    egg  
1    fresh lemon rind, of grated 

 

 
Sift flour and baking powder together in a small bowl. 
Cream butter, add sugar slowly, mixing well. 
Mix in egg and lemon rind. 
Add flour/baking powder mixture, mix in well. 
Shape into balls about the size of a golf ball, place on pan, flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass. 
Bake at 300° for 15 to 20 minutes, just until a bit golden on the edges. 
These last well if kept in a tightly covered container, and actually taste even better after a day or two as the flavors develop.

Yield: 48-60 cookies
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Ready in: 30 minutes

 

And that’s it—that’s my entry for this month’s Royal foodie Joust.   Wish me luck!  And avocado ice cream?  Let’s just say it’ll be in regular rotation this summer.   Because, yum!       

 

You’re in a hurry! Running late, maybe even stuck in traffic. What’s for dinner? With one quick stop to the grocery store, or better yet—the farmer’s market, you can have everything in one bag to make this tempting sandwich.

We love this one. Seriously. L. O. V. E. It’s cool and refreshing with zero cooking involved, so that makes it great for hot summer evenings when you can’t even think of turning on the oven. What’s so great about it? Well, aside from being delicious and loaded with vegetables, it’s also crunchy, cool, and satisfying. I think it would be great with some grilled chicken tucked in there, too. And now that we can actually see the grill out there in the yard, it’s a perfect time to try that option out. We’ve been enjoying this all winter long. Yes, really! With bagged spinach, Campari Tomatoes or vine ripened, and an English Cucumber—you know the ones, all wrapped up in plastic—this still tastes like a fresh summer sandwich.

Have you guys tried the Campari tomatoes? They’re the closest I've found to garden fresh. They’re sweet and so good. I think I’ll have to do a side by side when we start getting garden tomatoes this summer. Anyway, they’re a bit pricier than the pink, bland “other” tomatoes, but they’re well worth it.

I found this recipe a while back at MyRecipes.com. If you haven’t checked this site out yet, you should. It’s packed with great recipes and tips! Whether you want quick recipes, diet friendly, budget, or party recipes and more, you can find them there. The MyRecipes.com network has recipes from some of your favorite magazines:

• Cooking Light
• Coastal Living
• Cottage Living
• Health
• MyHomeIdeas
• Real Simple
• Southern Accents
• Southern Living
• Sunset

Just look at all of those resources, right at your fingertips! So check them out!

You can find the recipe for the sandwich here: Greek Sandwich with Feta Vinaigrette. The only thing I do differently is to use fresh spinach instead of arugula. And do make the dressing to taste—a reviewer said she thought it was a bit lemony, so she added extra oil. It’s all to taste, right?

One side note—we like to really pack the salad into the sandwiches. I know, oink, right? But it’s salad! Can’t fault me for that, hehe. So it can get a little messy. Serve with a fork for picking up the salad that is going to fall out in your plate. And if you’re serving it to guests, make sure they’re people you’re not trying to impress with your graceful eating habits. This sandwich is good. Really good. And worth getting a little messy over.

If any of you decide to try it, please let me know how you liked it, and also let me know if you try it with chicken! One more thing! The dressing and salad make a wonderful side salad on their own, or even with some chicken added for a main dish meal.